The day I got really irritated at this was one in the summer when I took the family out.
We debated the various options but couldn't face the traffic (despite both kids being really competent and utterly dependable in terms of doing what they are told when they are told - and more than this even being able to ride as a tight nippy formation).
In the end, despite the boredom we opted for using the canal for some of the ride. We cycled as carefully as could be achieved. Really - no family could have done this with more care, more consideration, and more inconvenience to ourselves.
It was busy. We did our absolute utmost not to be a pain - but it just was busy.
Eventually, hot in the sun, we all stopped to take a layer off. We'd not stopped among people where it was really really busy, but inevitably there was one person in the vicinity. He chose that time to complain loudly about how we'd stopped in front of him - why had we passed and then stopped...
So my conclusion, as always, was that it absolutely does not matter how hard you try - how considerate you are - if you're on a bike you become subject to public derision, moans, being shouted at, and so on. You're pushed into scenarios where you put others to inconvenience - pushed into pedestrian space because the city can't be brave enough to do something better.
So I ask myself - why bother to try... is there anything gained by being nice. Perhaps those who run red lights, go screaming past old ladies scaring them to death, and shout F... You ! to the world have it right.
Then I go out another day and continue to take as much care as I can - to be as polite as I can... but I have to say that I stopped criticising those who bend the rules (unless they actually put people at risk).
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